


Étudier est dur

by angelus2hot



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Gen Fic, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-07
Updated: 2010-10-07
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Studying the French language isn't as easy as it sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Étudier est dur

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Étudier est dur  
>  **Rating:** PG-13  
>  **Word Count:** 1,049  
>  **Prompt:** 190(free for all)  
>  **Characters/Pairing:** Buffy, Giles, Willow

Buffy stared at the page in front of her for a full five minutes before she laid the book face down on the table in front of her. She sighed loudly as she tried to wrap her tongue around the correct pronunciation and spelling of the foreign words without peeking. _It was just too hard!_ She didn’t know what had possessed her to try and learn French. But here she was on a Friday stuck in the library studying when she could’ve been doing something a lot more fun, like slaying a vampire or having dental work done. A louder sigh escaped her as she tried again.

I am _Je suis_  
She is _elle est_  
He is _Il est_  
You are _vous êtes_

Giles stood at the entrance to his office and tried not to wince as Buffy butchered the French language. "How's the studying?"

"I don't think I'm cut out to learn a different language. Do you think I could drop it?" She couldn’t quite keep the hopeful tone out of her voice.

Giles tsked. He hated that she was ready to give up so quickly. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that Buffy could excel if she'd only apply herself to learning as she did to her slayer duties. "The key to learning any language is immersion. Try again en Francais."

Buffy shot Giles a dirty look. "Fine. _Vous êtes dur. Voulez-vous faire l'amour avec moi?_

Giles' face turned four different shades of red before it settled into a deep reddish purple. He whipped off his glasses and began to clean them furiously. "What exactly did you mean to say?"

"Studying is hard. Do you want to go get something to eat with me?"

He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "Ah."

By the embarrassed look that still clung to Giles' features she knew that what she said had to have been a doozy. "What did I say?"

A complete look of horror crossed Giles' face. There was no way in hell he was going to translate that for Buffy. His only recourse was to leave before she could badger him for an answer. Hopefully she’d put his quick exist down to his being late for something. He turned to leave the room and spoke, in what he hoped was a casual manner, over his shoulder. "That's neither here nor there. Suffice it to say that it wasn't correct and you should get back to your studies." Without a backward glance Giles walked out of the library leaving Buffy to stare after his retreating form.

 _It couldn't have been all that bad."_ With a shrug she reached for her French language book. Seriously, how bad could it have been to make Giles react like that? She’d probably just gotten the verb tenses wrong or something. Buffy began to flip through the pages, determined to find out exactly what she’d said to give Giles the wig.

“Hi, Buffy. I just passed Giles in the hallway, he looked kind of upset about something. What happened?”

Buffy closed the book before she laid it back down onto the table. “I was studying for French class and Giles said all this stuff about immersion and blah, blah, blah. The next thing I know he’s telling me to keep studying and leaving the library as if he’d just heard they weren’t going to be making tweed anymore.”

“Well, what did you say?”

“I said ‘Studying is hard, and Do you want to go eat with me?’.

“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad. Repeat it to me in French.”

 _“Vous êtes dur. Voulez-vous faire l'amour avec moi?”_

Willow’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Buffy. She couldn’t believe Buffy had said that, sure she probably didn’t know what it meant but still. _Wow!_ That certainly explained Giles’ reaction. “No. Tell me you didn’t say that!” Willow couldn’t help but be a little impressed. She would never have had the gall to say anything like that to Giles or to any guy for that matter whether she meant it or not. And here her best friend just spouted it out of the blue. _Wow!_

Buffy nodded her head. From the look on her best friend’s face she was positive that she hadn’t messed up her tenses. “So what did I say?”

Willow turned her head this way and that just to make sure that no one else was in the library with them. The last thing she needed was for Xander Harris to overhear this kind of conversation. She would never live it down. To be on the safe side she wasn’t going to translate it out loud. She cupped her hands around her mouth, leaned forward and began to whisper in Buffy’s ear.

By the time she was finished Buffy’s face was beet red and it was getting redder by the minute. “Oh my God. No wonder he left in such a hurry.” Once again Buffy reached for her book and began to flip through the pages.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ve got to figure out the best way to apologize to Giles without giving him a major wig.” She turned the page. “The French language got me into this and the French language is going to get me out of it.”

“Buffy, maybe you should just say you’re sorry and leave it at that.”

Buffy paused for a moment before she closed her book once more. “Okay, tell me what to say.”

 

*************

 

An hour later Buffy finally caught up with Giles’ near the principal’s office.

“Giles, I want to apologize to you. To say that....wait, I forgot to say it in French. How did it go again?” Buffy thought for a minute. “Ummm.... _S'il vous plaît...._ Uh....Oh yeah, _Je te veux. Mon corps a besoin de votre corps_

A pained expression crossed Giles’ face. _Dear Lord, how much was a man supposed to endure?_ “I have a hard enough time understanding what you mean when you speak English, Buffy. I don’t want to try and decipher what you mean in French. How about we keep to the English language when we’re speaking with one another?”

Relief flooded through her body. _So he hadn’t understood what she’d said. Thank God!_ A big smile lit up Buffy’s face. “It’s a deal.”

 

 

 

 _Translation:  
Étudier est dur = Studying is hard  
Vous êtes dur = You are hard  
Voulez-vous faire l'amour avec moi? = Do you want to make love with me?  
S'il vous plaît = Please  
Je te veux = I want you  
Mon corps a besoin de votre corps = My body needs your body_


End file.
